274 
WANDERINGS IN 
FOURTH 
.TOUHNF.Y. 
Three 
classes of 
Monkeys. 
fruit at their pursuers. I have had fine opportuni¬ 
ties of narrowly watching the different species of 
monkeys which are found in the wilds, betwixt the 
Amazons and the Oroonoque. I entirely acquit 
them of acting on the offensive. When the mon¬ 
keys are in the high trees over your head, the dead 
branches will now and then fall down upon you, 
having been broken off as the monkeys pass along 
them; but they are never hurled from their hands. 
Monkeys commonly so called, both in the old and 
new continent, may be classed into three grand 
divisions; namely, the ape, which has no tail what¬ 
ever; the baboon, which has only a short tail; 
and the monkey, which has a long tail. There are 
no apes, and no baboons as yet discovered in the 
new world. Its monkeys may be very well and 
very briefly ranged under two heads; namely, 
those with hairy and bushy tails ; and those whose 
tails are bare -of hair underneath, about six inches 
from the extremity. Those with hairy and bushy 
tails climb just like the squirrel, and make no use of 
the tail to help them from branch to branch. Those 
which have the tail bare underneath towards the end, 
find it of infinite advantage to them, in their ascent 
and descent. They apply it to the branch of the 
tree, as though it were a supple finger, and fre¬ 
quently swing by it from the branch like the pendu¬ 
lum of a clock. It answers all the purposes of a 
fifth hand to the monkey, as naturalists have already 
observed. 
The large red monkey of Demerara is not a 
